In May 2007 there will be a meeting consisting of a series of workshops focusing on "Reward, compulsions and habit formation". The conference will take place at IGESA Resort in Porquerolles, France. The Principal Investigator is Suzanne N. Haber, University of Rochester, and the co- organizers are: Paul Apicella, Christelle Baunez, Martine Cador, Barry Everitt. Anthony Grace Ann Kelley, Jacqueline McGinty, Bita Moghaddam, Celeste Napier, Patricio O'Donnell, Linda Porrino and Daniel Weinberger Ph.D., NIMH. To stimulate active, informal discussion, the meeting consists of a series of workshops and will be relatively small. In preparation for the meeting, we have chosen four workshop topics. Four focus groups have been created to develop the questions and issues for discussion in the workshops. The focus groups are comprised of a cross section of 7-9 scientists to include clinical and basic scientists, and a mixture of junior and senior scientists. These groups will also prepare an introductory summary that begins each workshop on a specific topic. Following each workshop there will be summary session for all of the participants. The workshops will be an open forum, led by a facilitator, with a written summary by a scribe. Workshops will be devoted to active participation from all attendees, addressing new questions and directions that cut across the specific areas of expertise. This unique format, which has been very successful at our previous meetings, encourages free exchange of ideas. A specific emphasis is on recruiting young scientists to the field. Therefore each workshop will engage at least one young scientist in a leadership role (scribe or presenter). Furthermore, there will be a special workshop for junior scientists devoted to questions and issues related to career development. [unreadable] [unreadable] In pathologies involving motivational disorders, the problem of building/breaking habits is intermingled (Volkow and Fowler, 2000; Bechara, 2003; Groenewegen et al., 2003). In order to improve our understanding of these pathologies, it is therefore highly important to better identify the behavioral establishment, as well as the neuronal basis of habit formation. The topic of habit formation and compulsive disorders is particularly timely as it brings together motivational and motor aspects of cortico-basal ganglia systems. This field of research is currently considering parallels between drug addiction and compulsive eating behavior leading to obesity (Volkow and Wise, 2005; Kelley et al., 2005; Kelley and Berridge, 2002), as well as the commonalities and differences in other compulsive disorders such as OCD and Tourette's Syndrome. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]